A glimpse of Portugul; Salema and Lisbon

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Day 471 (26/7/09)
Salema, a tiny fishing village, just past Lagos on the southern Portugese coast and thankfully remains untouched by commerical tourism.
After bacon and eggs for breaky we walked to the Salema beach, hired a bed and umbrella for the day and relaxed after a hectic week on the go.
We called it a day and retreating to camp for a wine before taking up our hosts recommendation for a delicious dinner of prawns and red snapper at a local restaurant.
On our walk back to camp a kind couple offered us a lift .. life savers after just a but much wine!

Day 472
After a super windy night we were glad to wake with our little tent still standing. We ventured down to the beach for the morning and caught the midday bus back to Lagos and the next bus to Lisbon.
Arrived into Lisbon and caught the Metro to our room, just north of the city centre, in a slightly dodgy looking area. Buggered, we dropped off our gear and headed back to the city for a bite to eat, unable to locate the 'restaurant area' we were directed to we settled with a cheap restaurant near the metro stop. For a couple sirloin steaks drowned in sauce. Then back home for an early night.

Day 473
D-day for our assignment and yes we were ruing the decision to embark on any form of study whilst travelling or at least not finishing it whilst we were in Birmingham. We waited for the internet joint to open and it woundn't read our hard-drive. The panic button's were warming up! With some helpful directions we found another webcafe and a computer that would read the hard drive, quick check of the references and they were off, hopefully somewhere towards a pass.
We then found the restaurant area we were looking for the night before and stopped for lunch.
Our speedy highlight only tour of Lisbon then began, first stop the St Jorge Castle, following a picturesque walk through the old town to the Castle overlooking the city. We climbed to the top of the three towers and set out sights for St. Jeronimo Monastery. After a short bus ride we arrived to the impressive Monastery and extravagent exterior. From here we wandered past the cultural centre to the Begum Tower (free for students) sitting over the waters edge, after another 100 or so steps we made it to the top then battled our way back down against the hoards of tourists.
On the advice of the Lonely Planet we made our way for the Noi Bar, an awesome little terrace style bar beside the Santa Maria Church. Time for a couple cold Super Bock Greens (delicious) and a bite to eat.
We wandered back through the old town as Jez came down with a mysterious bug, and with the infermous ashes looming he was straight to bed to recover.

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